Alternate Reality: Island
by Celeste5502
Summary: When the heroes get to travel to the tropical land of Hawaii for a vacation, their fun in the sun gets interrupted by a volcanic goddess who needs her powers saved from an icy counterpart.
1. Prologue: Tickets for Eight

Prologue: Tickets for Eight

Another day at Domino's High School was about to start. In the meantime, kids were sitting around the room, finishing up some last minute homework, or playing some card games before class started.

On the side of the room, Yugi and Téa had turned two desks around to face each other and were now involved in a simple game of Duel Monsters while Tristan and Bakura stood by their desks and watched. Kaiba sat a little bit away, involved in a book and ignoring that which was going on around him.

"Sorry, Téa," Yugi smiled as he placed another monster card down on his side, "but this attack brings your life points down to zero."

Téa sighed and started gathering her cards back up. "It figures-I should have known better than to duel with you, King of Games."

Yugi turned red. "Thanks, but it's not just me, Téa-my wins are a joint effort on the Pharaoh and my part."

_Thanks, partner,_ the Pharaoh told him in his mind.

Tristan looked up and around the room. "Hey, does anybody know where Joey is?" he asked. "If he doesn't get here soon, he's gonna be late."

"You say that like it's an abnormal thing," Kaiba muttered to himself.

Just then, Joey Wheeler came into the room. He had a strangely ecstatic look on his face and was almost jumping with joy as he went over to the others, waving eight tickets in his hand.

"Goood morning, everyone!" he cried out happily.

The others stared at him. "Joey, are you okay?" Tristan asked. "You're acting even weirder than you look."

Almost instantly the grin on Joey's face vanished. "Ey, watch what you say ta me, man," he snapped, "'cause if ya make me mad, den I just might not let ya have one a dese." He waved the tickets in Tristan's face.

"What are those for?" Bakura asked.

Joey grinned with delight. "Oh, I was just headin' ta school when I saw one a dose street lottery games an decided to give it a whirl…an lucky me managed ta get de grand prize."

"A new brain?" Kaiba said.

Joey whipped around and yelled at him, "WAS I TALKIN' TA YOU?!"

Kaiba merely smirked in reply.

Joey turned back to his friends and grinned, "I have, in my hand right here, eight tickets for a five day trip to…HAWAII!"

Everyone stared up at him in shock. "Are you serious?!" Yugi cried.

"Yep."

Tristan put one arm around Joey's neck and said with a sheepish grin, "Joey…buddy…pal…you know I didn't really mean what I just said, right?"

"Maybe I will if ya buy me lunch for de next two weeks," Joey replied, grinning back at him.

Tristan stared. "Aw, man…" he sighed.

Joey handed out tickets to Yugi, Téa, Bakura, and a glaring Tristan. "I tought dat dis would be a really nice way ta finally get a vacation from all a de…ya know…tings we hafta take care of," he said.

Tristan stared at him and slapped a hand to his forehead. "Aw, man, did you have to say that? Now you've jinxed us!"

"What? It's not like since I say it dat means it's gonna happen," Joey cried.

Téa looked down at her ticket with saddened eyes. "Maybe that wouldn't really matter…" she murmured. "It seems like no matter where we go, there's always somebody there who needs our help…whether we'd want it or not…"

"Téa?"

She looked up, startled to see that Pharaoh had taken over for Yugi. He smiled reassuringly at her and said, "Come now, there's no need to worry. We will have time to actually enjoy ourselves while we're on vacation, and even if, perhaps, we do end up finding someone who needs our assistance, I'm certain that it won't be anything we can't handle, okay?"

Téa smiled wanly. "Thanks, Pharaoh."

Pharaoh looked up at Joey and said, "Joey, perhaps we should take caution and give the other three tickets to the others in our, um, group."

Joey stared at him. "Aw, man, you're not sayin'-"

Before he could finish, a folded-up piece of paper knocked against his shoe. He reached down, picked it up, and opened it.

"What does it say?" Pharaoh asked.

"'Absolutely not'," Joey read. He turned and looked back at Kaiba, who was still reading but had a nastier scowl on his face now.

"Well, if that's what he wants then it's quite all right, but I do hope he realizes that if something happens, he would most likely be forced to come down anyway and make others around him wonder why he's leaving under such suspicious circumstances-and I'm certain that Hawaii would allow for access to computers," Pharaoh replied.

There was a pause for a moment. Another folded up paper slid up to Joey's shoe. He picked it up, unfolded it, and read: "'Give it to me'."

Joey looked around to make sure none of the other kids in the room were watching, then took a ticket, held it up, and let it flutter down onto Kaiba's desk. Kaiba quickly moved his book in front of it and used one hand to slip the ticket into his pocket.

Joey handed another ticket to Pharaoh and said, "Dis one's for Gramps, but how are we gonna get de last one ta Spencer?"

"Hmm…well, perhaps if those particular three are watching us at this moment, which I'm certain they are, then maybe they would be willing to let him know about it?"

The ticket suddenly vanished right out of Joey's hand in a swirl of black and white sparks. _We'll do better than that, _D.M.'s voice replied in their heads. _We'll give it right to him; we're certain he'd love to take a tropical vacation from his kingly duties._

"Awright, nice," Joey grinned. "Even if a certain _someone _is coming," he looked back and glared at Kaiba, "notin's gonna be able ta ruin dis vacation now!"

"Oh great," Tristan murmured, "now we're doubly jinxed-the vacation's doomed."

"Aw, c'mon, man," Joey rolled his eyes. "Quit bein' so negative-in fact, I'm gonna betcha a bunch a yen dat notin's goin' ta happen!"

* * *

It was the middle of the day on the island of Hawaii. The golden sun was shining down on the tan sand and the deep blue ocean, letting it sparkle as though little diamonds were floating on top. A gentle breeze went through the palm trees, shaking the milk-filled coconuts they carried just slightly. It was a perfect day for one to swim, relax, or perhaps to take a hike around one of the famous Hawaiian volcanoes.

On the volcano known as Kilauea, widely renowned as the site of the formerly molten, golden strands of Pele's hair, one who was walking around the place would have seen a very strange sight: Lying on a Pele's hair formation was a beautiful young Hawaiian girl with flowing black hair, deep black eyes, and perfectly tanned skin wearing a red tank top, grassy Hawaiian skirt, red flowers around her neck and another one in her hair. Her hands were behind her head, and she let out a small sigh as the breeze blew through her hair. "Wonderful day…" she murmured.

Suddenly, a chill came into the breeze. The shock of it sent her bolting upwards to see that a bunch of ice crystals had suddenly appeared in front of her, strangely unaffected by the blazing hot sun. The crystals came together and transformed into another beautiful young woman with dark blue hair, blue eyes, and creamy skin wearing a white evening gown with a furry white jacket, white boots trimmed with fur, and fuzzy white earmuffs.

"Hello there, Pele," the woman in white grinned nastily at her.

Pele glared angrily at her, and her outline glowed with a fiery red light. "What are you doing here, Poliahu?"

"Oh, nothing…" Poliahu replied, examining her painted white nails. "I just wanted to let you know that your time as goddess of volcanoes is about to be up."

"Oh, really?" Pele commented, getting up and folding her arms. "And what exactly makes you think that?"

Poliahu grinned and reached into her jacket pocket. She pulled out a large, beautiful stone that sparkled with all of the colors of the rainbow as the sunlight shone down on it.

Pele's eyes widened with horror. "It's…it's…"

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Poliahu grinned. "It's your family's Makua Stone, as I'm sure you know. Your oldest sister was kind enough to give it to me-she's still pretty ticked about you making out with her boyfriend thousands of years ago." She held the stone out at Pele. "I'm curious to see how it works-and I think I'll find out by using it on YOU!"

A white light shot out of the stone; before it could hit Pele, however, she suddenly transformed into a pool of lava which quickly slid down Pele's hair and all the way down and off of the volcano.

Poliahu grinned as she watched the lava flow off of the volcano and out of sight. "Yeah, run you pathetic excuse of a goddess," she sneered, "but sooner or later those nice little volcanic powers of yours will be mine."


	2. Chapter One: Normal Vacation

Chapter One: Normal Vacation

The next day, the eight heroes were flying in a luxurious private jet provided specially for them as part of the grand prize. Under Téa's insistence, Yugi, Joey, Tristan, Bakura, Grandpa (in Yuri form), and herself had gone shopping after school for new clothes perfect for Hawaii. Now, the guys were dressed in white flowered Hawaiian shirts with backgrounds that matched the colors of their magic and white shorts, while she herself wore a pink muumuu with white flowers that just hung off her shoulders and a white flower in her hair. Spencer, who'd enthusiastically agreed to go on a vacation in a tropical spot like Hawaii, had simply zapped up a white flowered shirt with a gold background and white shorts, along with a new pair of sunglasses that he'd perched on top of his bangs. Kaiba, of course, refused to get too much into the spirit and simply wore a white polo with blue shorts.

At the moment, Joey and Tristan were wolfing down the food provided for them on the flight, Kaiba was sitting in the back and typing away on his laptop, ignoring the others in entirety, and the others were gathered around each other in a group of seats, talking excitedly about their trip.

"Hawaii is going to be so beautiful…" Téa said dreamily. "The sun, the sand, the ocean…it'll be like paradise."

"I agree," Yuri nodded. "I'll be able to wear a bathing suit without having people staring at me in sheer terror."

"Grandpa, it can't be that bad!" Yugi laughed.

He rolled his eyes. "I'll remind you of that when you're old, grey, and unfortunate enough to have a potbelly."

"I do hope we'll be able to enjoy ourselves on this trip," Bakura said. "I worry sometimes about having yet another spirit come up to me because they want a bit of assistance or to simply talk."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry too much about spirits," Spencer replied. "It's the gods that could possibly give us a hassle."

The others turned and stared at him. Joey and Tristan looked up from their feast and Joey said with his mouth still full, "Gods?"

Spencer nodded. "Yeah, Hawaii's got its very own god mythology. They've got Lono, god of peace; Kanaloa, god of the sea; Kū-ka-ili-moku, the feather god; Kāne, god of nature and life…"

"Uh, but dey're all just myths, right?" Joey said once he'd swallowed his food. "None of dese gods really exist?"

Just then, a voice came out over the jet's speakers: **Your attention, please-we are about to begin our descent to the island of Hawaii, so would everyone please return to their seats and fasten their seatbelts as we prepare for landing. Thank you.**

"Awright!" Joey cried out, jumping away from his feast and, ignoring the pilot's request, staring outside his window as the green and tan Hawaiian Islands came into view. "We're here!"

The others squirmed in their seats as the plane slowly circled down and screeched to a stop on the runway. Once it was finally okay for them to get up, they quickly grabbed their carry-on bags and dashed off of the plane. After going through all of the typical airport security and baggage pick-up procedures, they finally stepped out of the airport and into the beautiful Hawaiian sun. A bunch of young Hawaiian women dressed as hula dancers stepped up to them and placed leis of white flowers around all of their necks, much to the delight of Joey and Tristan and to the chagrin of Kaiba.

To everyone's delight, waiting for them right outside was a long, black limo with a driver standing by its front door holding a sign that said _Wheeler_. They placed their baggage in the trunk, got inside, and started off towards their hotel.

As they drove along, Joey and Tristan opened the sun roof and stuck their heads out of it to let the warm Hawaiian breeze run through their hair. Joey sniffed at the air and caught a whiff of a strange, sweet smell. "What's dat?" he asked Tristan.

Tristan sniffed the air and replied, "I think that's the smell of pineapple."

"Oh, man…" Joey licked his lips. "If it's on de air all de way out here, den dat means dere's lots a dem!"

"Fruit feast, here we come!" Tristan yelled, punching a fist into the air.

The others, meanwhile, rolled down the limo windows and gazed outside at the beautiful scenery. Dozens of Hawaiians were running around on the beautiful beaches, splashing in the sparkling water and building castles with the tan sand. Occasionally they saw a coconut tree which people were attempting to shake down in order to savor the coconut's delicious milk.

Spencer grinned as he watched a bunch of people surfing on the waves. "Hmm, that looks like an interesting sport," he said. "I think I'll try it out once we get to our place."

"Thank you, Spencer," Kaiba replied, still working on his laptop. "At least I'll get some entertainment from watching you wipe out the majority of the time."

Spencer turned and gave him an evil eye. "I'll get the hang of it, you baka," he glared. "You just watch."

Finally, the limo arrived at a beautiful resort which was right by the beach. The teens got four different suites right next to each on the first floor, which they decided to split up between Yugi, Joey, and Tristan, Téa, getting a room to herself as the only female, Bakura and Yuri, and Spencer and Kaiba (Spencer had ultimately lost the game of roe, sham, boe to choose who'd have to room with the C.E.O.). All of their rooms had two king-sized beds with flowery bedding that had nightstands with lamps on top with shades that were decorated with seashells between them, round tables with three chairs around them, and a computer area in the corner. Outside of large patio doors were porches with two chairs and a round table each with a beautiful view of the Hawaiian beach behind the place.

Joey flung himself down onto a bed and sighed with delight. "Now DIS is what I call relaxin'."

"Hey, Joey, that's my bed," Tristan said.

"No way, man, dis is my bed," Joey replied, lifting his head up.

"Um, guys, I think you two are going to have to share," Yugi replied, setting his bags down onto the other bed.

The two of them stared at him for a few moments, just about ready to pounce on one another in a fight. Finally Tristan replied, "Yeah, I guess you're right-I wouldn't want to risk Joey squashing you in his sleep."

"HEY!" both Yugi and Joey cried out.

After a little while, almost all of the teens got into their bathing suits and happily dashed out of their rooms to the beach. Joey and Tristan jumped into the water and started swimming out into the ocean, attempting to pull each other underneath every stroke of the way, while Yugi and Bakura tried to make sure they didn't kill each other in the process.

Spencer, meanwhile, swam right past them holding onto a gold surfboard which, he'd told Kaiba, he'd gotten the 'powers' way. Once he managed to find a good wave, he slowly brought himself up onto the board, wobbled a little as he held his arms straight out from his sides, and finally managed to achieve balance.

"Yo, Kaiba!" Spencer yelled to the teen still sitting on their porch. "Looks like you're going to be terribly bored on this vacation, huh?"

Kaiba ignored him and continued typing on his laptop.

Téa took the time to spread a pink beach blanket out on the sand and laid down on it. She closed her eyes and let the golden Hawaiian sun come down upon her, soaking up its rays and, hopefully, a little tan as well. Yuri walked around her on the beach, digging through the sand in search of shells to take home as souvenirs ("Reminds me of my time as an archaeologist," he joked).

After a bit of a while, Yugi paused in his swimming and glanced up at the sky. The others in the water noticed him just floating where he was and Joey asked, "Yug, what's wrong?"

Yugi looked back at them and let out a little laugh. "Sorry, but any moment now I keep expecting something to come flying down on top of us and attack us with magical beams."

"Yug, c'mon!" Joey smiled. "For once in our lifetime, we're just havin' a nice, normal vacation dat doesn't involve fightin' some evil psychopath, so just kick back, relax, an enjoy AAH!"

While Joey had been talking, Tristan dove under the water, swam up to Joey, and suddenly popped up and dunked him down into the ocean. A few moments later, Joey came back up and spat water out of his mouth. "AAGH! SALTY!" he yelled out.

Tristan laughed hysterically and quickly started swimming away, with an angry Joey hot on his tail. Bakura and Yugi followed after them; as they swam, Yugi thought, _Maybe Joey's right…maybe we'll be able to have an actual normal vacation after all._

* * *

A small pool of lava slowly made its way down to the very bottom floor of the island, strangely having no effects at all on the trees and animals which it passed through. Eventually, the pool came out of the greenery and found itself at a sandy beach.

The pool of lava got up and slowly shifted itself back into the young woman Pele. She gazed around the beach and watched as a few teenagers enjoyed themselves in the water and on the sand.

She sighed. _Well, I suppose I'll stay here for the time being, _she thought to herself, lying down on the sand. _Hopefully Poliahu won't think of looking for me around the beaches…_

She didn't notice a few little ice crystals hovering a bit above her. _Yes, that's right, Pele,_ Poliahu thought to herself. _Just wait there and think I haven't been able to find you…and when you least expect it…POW!_


	3. Chapter Two: Hawaiian Goddesses

Chapter Two: Hawaiian Goddesses

Later that day, after all of the swimming, surfing, and sunbathing, Yugi sat alone on his room's porch, watching the sun set over the ocean. The sight was almost enchanting, with the sky turning various shades of pink, yellow, and violet, and the wavy image of the sun glistening on the deep blue ocean.

"Yugi?"

Yugi turned around to see Téa standing behind him on the porch. "We're all going to dinner in the hotel restaurant, so maybe you should come before Joey and Tristan order everything on the menu and eat it all up."

He laughed. "Don't worry; I'll be there in a minute."

Téa turned and walked back through the porch door. Yugi looked back out at the sunset and thought, _Today was great…no magic, no evil beings chasing after us…just us being teenagers and hanging out on the beach…_

Pharaoh told him in his mind, _It was rather nice to get away from all of the chaos in our lives._

_Almost makes me wish that every day could be like that…just friends, fun, and complete paradise…_

Yugi closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, letting the sweet smells of Hawaii fill his nostrils. "Aah…" he breathed out.

He opened his eyes and saw, to his surprise, a young woman had suddenly appeared a little further down on the beach. She was quite beautiful with her flowing, silky black hair and deeply tanned skin which enhanced the darkness of her eyes. Strangely, though, she was dressed like a hula dancer with a pink tank top, flowers around her neck and one in her hair, and a grassy green skirt that went all the way down to her bare feet.

_Where'd she come from? _Yugi thought.

Suddenly, Pharaoh said to him, _Yugi…I'm sensing some sort of great power emanating from that young woman…it's almost as though she's immortal…_

Yugi's mind went back to what Spencer had said about the Hawaiian gods. _You don't think…_

Suddenly, a shower of ice crystals soared down from the sky and landed a behind the young woman. The crystals formed themselves into a beautiful young woman who looked really out of place in the tropical land with her blue hair, creamy skin, and furry white coat and boats over a long white evening gown.

"Oh Pe-le," the woman said in a sing-song voice.

The other girl whipped around and stared at the white, fur-clad one in shock. "Wha…how did you find me here?" she cried out.

The fur-clad woman pulled a shining, rainbow-colored stone out of her pocket. "Funny thing about the Makua Stone-not only does it have control over you Hawaiian gods' powers, but it can also sense them out no matter where you try to run."

_Yugi, I sense a great evil coming from that white-clad young woman,_ Pharaoh said to him in his mind.

_Oh no…_Yugi thought.

"Stay away from me, Poliahu," Pele snapped. "I've already had enough horrors in my life, what with being sent away by my family to watch over this islandand having almost all of my loves die on me, and the last thing I need is some snowy mountain goddess taking away my volcanic powers."

"Well, you should have thought of that before you became my rival and started competing with me for said loves," Poliahu snapped back. "Now then, sweetheart, say bye-bye to your pow-ers."

The Makua Stone glowed with a bright light which shot out of it and directly towards Pele.

The Millennium Puzzle glowed and Pharaoh took over for Yugi. He quickly held out his hand and conjured up a force field that surrounded Pele and absorbed the light beam from the stone.

"WHAT?!" Poliahu cried out.

Pharaoh soared up into the air and landed down in front of Pele. He glared angrily at Poliahu and snapped, "Stay away from her!"

Stunned, Pele slowly reached out and tapped the force field around her. She stared at the young man in front of her and thought to herself, _Strange…I've never encountered any other magical creatures besides Hawaiian gods before…_

Poliahu glared angrily at the Pharaoh. "I don't know who you are, mister, but I do know that this is none of your business!"

"I beg to differ," Pharaoh replied. "Attacks on innocent magical creatures have been my business for quite some time now."

Poliahu sneered at him, shoving the Makua Stone back into her pocket. She held her arms up from her sides and sharp ice crystals appeared all around her. "Well then, allow for me to put you out of business," she replied.

She flung her arms out in front of her and sent the ice crystals straight at him. Pharaoh retaliated, however, by creating another field in front of him which the crystals shattered up against.

Angrily, Poliahu retaliated by pointing one hand out at the sandy ground and raising it upwards. A huge, jagged ice crystal suddenly sprung up right next to Pharaoh. He dashed away as Poliahu sent crystal after crystal springing up from the ground behind him, only barely avoiding getting pierced by freezing cold ice.

Finally, right when she was about to pull up another one, he sent out a beam of magic at Poliahu which hit her head-on. She went spinning into the air and flew down face-first onto the sandy ground, where she remained still with her eyes shut.

The Pharaoh kept an eye on her for a few minutes. Satisfied that she had been knocked out, he sent out a beam of magic which shattered the jagged ice crystals that she had formed. He waved one hand at Pele and let the force field around her down. "Are you okay, Miss Pele?" he asked.

Pele stared at him in awe. "Who exactly are you?"

"DEAD MEAT!"

Pharaoh whipped around to see that Poliahu had awoken and risen to her feet. Before he could retaliate, she suddenly fired out a beam of ice which struck him in the chest and sent him flying out into the ocean with a splash.

Horrified, Pele glared at Poliahu with red, glowing eyes. She held up one hand and an orb of molten hot lava appeared right above it. With all of her might, she flung the orb at the ice goddess.

Poliahu shrieked and jumped out of the way of the lava, but the end of her hair was still struck by the orb before it smashed into the sand and sent some of it flying up into the air.

She stared in horror at the black, singed hair at the end of the blue. "PE-LEEEEEE!" she screamed out angrily. She yanked the Makua Stone out of her pocket and pointed it at Pele. "SAY GOODBYE!"

Pharaoh burst out of the water at that moment, coughing some of it out of his mouth. He looked towards the beach and saw, to his horror, Poliahu send a ray of light out at Pele from the rainbow-colored stone which struck her and gave her outline a white glow. Pele screamed in horror and dropped to her knees as the white light slowly turned red and fiery.

Poliahu grinned nastily and spread out her arms. "Come to me, power of the volcanoes!"

The red light came up out of Pele and formed itself into a red orb. Somehow, Pharaoh knew that the orb could not get to Poliahu at any cost.

He flew at near lightning-fast speed towards the orb as it started moving towards Poliahu. Only an instant before it could hit her, he swooped down in front of her and let the orb blast him in the chest.

Pharaoh landed on the ground on all fours. He tried to get up, but he quickly collapsed back onto the ground. He breathed heavily as he suddenly felt blazingly hot, almost like he was on the surface of the sun. Sweat started trickling down his forehead. _Wha…what's happening to me?_

Poliahu glared down at him angrily. "You think you can just come and take away the power that I stole fair and square, huh? Well, take THIS!"

She held a hand down at him and he suddenly became encased in a small, solid orb of ice. "Humph!" she said, "That should teach you to mess with a goddess."

With that, she turned around, transformed into a shower of ice crystals, and soared off into the sky.

Pele groaned and slowly got to her feet. She looked around and was horrified to see the orb of ice before her. "Oh no…" she cried out, dashing up to the orb. She tapped it gently and called inside of the orb, "Are you in there, child?"

There was no response. She held out her hand and attempted to melt the orb away with some lava…but nothing happened.

Pele stared down at her hand in horror. She tried to conjure up an orb of lava, but no matter what she did, she just could not get anything even remotely lava-like to form. "My powers…" she whispered in horror.

As she considered the horrific thought that she'd lost all but her immortality, she suddenly heard a small _hiss _noise come from the orb before her. She looked down and saw, to her amazement, that hot steam was starting to come out of the ice.

Pele slowly stepped back from the orb, eying it with uncertainty.

Suddenly, the ice completely melted into nothing but water. To Pele's shock, the moment the water touched Pharaoh, it immediately sizzled and sent little streams of steam up into the air.

Pharaoh slowly stood up. Even though he'd just been completely encased in ice, for some reason he felt a warm, toasty feeling flowing throughout his body which he assumed was simply the aftermath of being hit by the red orb. He looked over at Pele, who stared at him with wide eyes.

"Are you all right?" he asked her.

Pele blinked. "Are…you all right?" She gave him a rather strange look.

"I'm still a bit warm from the blast, but other than that, I think I'll be okay." He reached up a hand to wipe away some remaining sweat from his forehead-and suddenly stopped.

His skin had turned from a slight peach to a deep, bronze tan like Pele's, and thick streams of steam were coming out of it. "Wha-"

His shocked emotion made the warmth inside suddenly become a raging inferno. He stared at his hands as the entirety of his outline glowed with red, flaming light. When he looked down, he saw the heat he was emitting had become so intense that the sand under his feet was actually starting to melt.

"Oh no…" Pele murmured. "The human got my powers…"


	4. Chapter Three: Fire and Ice

Chapter Three: Fire and Ice

Back in the hotel restaurant, the heroes were sitting near each other at different tables. Joey and Tristan had taken a large table to themselves which they'd covered with various seafood, tropical fruits and drinks, and were gulping all of it down rapidly, much to the shock and disgust of other patrons. Kaiba took a small table to himself and simply continued typing away on his laptop, trying to ignore the large chews and grunts nearby. The others, meanwhile, had chosen to sit at a table right near the window, giving them a great view of the ocean where they could watch the sunset as they drank lemonade and ice tea.

Téa, however, couldn't keep her eyes focused on the outside; she continued gazing all around the restaurant, as if she was looking for someone. Yuri noticed the worried look on her face and asked her, "Is everything all right?"

"Where's Yugi? It shouldn't take him that long to get from our room to here," she replied.

"Maybe he just got lost looking for the place," Spencer shrugged.

"I doubt it," Téa said. A fearful thought suddenly came to her: "What if he's not here because he just met up with the evil that always comes whenever we're on vacation?"

"Téa, hon, calm down," Yuri replied. "Evil can't possibly be following us everywhere we go."

"Excuse me."

The teens looked up to see that a Hawaiian girl dressed like a hula dancer was standing by their table, wringing her hands together and looking at the ground sheepishly. "Are you, by chance, the friends of Yugi Muto?"

"Yep, that's us," Spencer replied, taking another sip of his lemonade.

"Would you all please come down to the beach? He, um, needs to meet you there."

The others at the table turned and stared at her. "Why can't he come here?" Yuri asked.

The Hawaiian girl lowered her voice. "He's…in a bit of a predicament at the moment."

As soon as she said that, Téa knew that her fears were justified. She quickly got up and dashed out of the restaurant. The Hawaiian girl stared after her and said, "I haven't freaked her out, have I?"

"Don't worry, she just cares a lot about her friends," Spencer replied. "C'mon, everyone, let's go."

Yuri and Bakura went with the Hawaiian girl, followed by Kaiba, who'd overheard them talking about a predicament and knew that meant it was time for more insanity. Spencer walked up to Joey and Tristan, grabbed them by their shirt collars, and hoisted them out of their seats.

"EY! WE'RE NOT DONE HERE!" Joey yelled at him with the tail end of a shrimp hanging out of his mouth.

"We've got 'special' trouble on our hands," Spencer replied. "Trust me, you two are done now."

The two sadly followed Spencer out of the restaurant, with Tristan muttering, "So much for a relaxing vacation…"

* * *

Téa dashed out her patio door and down to the beach, where she saw Yugi standing within a force field he'd conjured up on a pile of what appeared to be melted sand. To her amazement, his skin had become a deep tan in the couple of minutes that she'd left him, and his entire body was emitting what looked like streams of steam.

"Yugi!" Téa cried out, dashing over to the force field. "Are you all right?"

Yugi smiled wanly at her. "Don't worry, Téa, I'm fine. A little bit hot, but fine."

As the others came running up behind her, Téa asked "But why the force field?"

"It's, um, not a good idea to touch me at the moment," he replied. "I don't want you to get burned."

"Burned?!" Joey cried out. "Yug, what de heck happened ta you?"

Spencer made his way up to Yugi and used his sensing powers on him. He nearly jumped back in shock. "What the-Yug, you're on fire!"

"Literally," Tristan added, staring at the steam coming up from him.

"Hmm…I'm sensing out powers of heat, fire, and…control of lava? That kind of reminds me of…" Realization dawned in his eyes. He turned and asked the Hawaiian girl, "Are you Pele?"

She smiled and nodded. "Yes, that's me."

"Uh, who's Pele?" Tristan asked Spencer.

"Remember when I was telling you about those Hawaiian gods? Well," he indicated the girl, "this young woman is one of the most famous of them all-Pele, goddess of the volcanoes."

She bowed down to them. "Aloha."

"This is strange, though-how did your powers get transferred over to my friend here?" Spencer asked Pele. "I didn't think you had the ability to do that, and even if you did, I doubt you'd ever want to risk using it."

Pele shook her head. "This wasn't something of my own doing. Another goddess attempted to use my family's Makua Stone to take away my powers, but this young man got to them before she did."

"Another goddess? Which one?"

"I don't suppose you've heard of her-Poliahu?"

"Hmm…if memory from my mythology class serves correctly, she's your rival of sorts, right? The goddess of the snow-capped mountains."

Pele rolled her eyes. "Yes, that's her-little witch has been attempting to take me down and steal all of my loves away from me for eons."

"But your family's Makua Stone…how in the world did she get her hands on that?"

Pele looked sheepishly at the ground. "Erm…my oldest sister Na-maka-o-kaha'igave it to her…she, um, still hasn't quite forgiven me for making out with her boyfriend a couple of eons ago…"

"Question," Joey said to the two. "What de heck is a Makua Stone?"

"It's a stone which has control over the powers wielded by every member of a Hawaiian god family," Pele explained. "We have it just in case a god or goddess becomes a bit too reckless with his or her powers and it's determined that he or she must have them removed for the sake of the Hawaiian humanity."

"We need that for every magical being that goes crazy with their powers," Spencer murmured, his thoughts going to the former king Resheph.

"So, if we just find dis Poliahu girl an get dat Mak-whadever stone away from her, den we can get Pele's powers outta Yug an give dem back ta her, right?" Joey concluded.

Pele sighed. "That's by far much easier said than done, young man-even if she is a goddess of ice and snow on a tropical island, she certainly won't make it easy for us to find her. And once we do, I'm quite certain that getting the stone away from her will be even more of a challenge."

"Hey, a challenge has never been able to stop us," Tristan grinned.

"Yeah, 'challenge' is practically our middle name," Joey nodded.

Pele smiled. "Well, then, I suppose you teens can take over the task. For the moment, however…" She turned and looked at the sun, now a mere sliver over the ocean horizon. "It is getting late. I propose that we begin our search tomorrow, when you humans have had a little rest. I understand that by now you humans begin to feel…tired, yes?"

"Yeah, 'tired's' de right word," Joey said. He let out a rather loud yawn. "An after eatin' all a dat food I'm feelin' pretty tired, too."

"Hmm, strange-I've always seen the nature of the mutt in you, but this sloth-like one is new to me," Kaiba said.

Tristan held Joey back from attacking him as he started walking back to his room. Once Joey had finally calmed down, the others followed suit, with Téa allowing for Pele to use her spare bed.

Before she got back into her room, however, Téa looked back to take one more glance at the ocean and saw the still steaming Yugi rolling into it within his force field. Stunned, she dashed back onto the beach and cried, "Yugi, what are you doing?"

He stopped rolling and looked back at her with a wan smile. "I'm going to sleep down here in the ocean tonight-I don't want to risk accidentally burning up the hotel while I'm having a bad dream or something."

"But-how are you even going to breathe down there? The oxygen in that force field can't last forever!"

"I'll just cast a spell on myself. I'll be okay, Téa, don't worry," he reassured her. "Goodnight."

She continued to watch as he rolled himself deeper down into the ocean until he finally vanished into its watery depths. As she turned and walked back to her hotel room, she thought to herself, _Téa, stop worrying-nothing bad is going to happen to Yugi overnight. _She paused. _I hope._


	5. Chapter Four: In the Ocean Blue

Chapter Four: In the Ocean Blue

Téa awoke late in the night. She slowly turned and looked over at Pele, who was still sleeping peacefully. Outside, the full moon sparkled over the ocean, giving the beach an ethereal beauty. Strangely, however, a little bit off into the ocean, a stream of steam was rising up into the starry night sky.

She knew what that was.

She slowly swung her feet off the side of her bed and snapped her fingers, transforming her pajamas into her muumuu. Quietly, Téa tiptoed across the room and slid the patio door open. She stepped outside and walked up to the very edge of the ocean where the waves rolled up against the sand. She pointed her fingers at herself and murmured,

_Like a creature of the ocean blue_

_Let me breathe underwater like one of them, too._

Pink sparks shot out of her fingers and right into her, creating an aura around her made of soft, pink light. She slowly waded into the water and, when she got in deeply enough, she dove inside.

Téa gazed in awe at the beauty around her; it was such a foreign place that it almost looked like she'd jumped right into another world. As she swam, she took quite a bit of time to look around at the spiky, waving coral and the multi-colored fishes whose scales sparkled from the light of the moon shining down through the water.

Finally, she came across the person she was looking for. Yugi Muto was lying on a force field bed which he'd conjured up over the sandy ocean floor, sleeping peacefully. His body was glowing with a mixture of the fiery red light along with a blue aura which, Téa assumed, was allowing him to breathe. His body was still emitting lots of steam, and the water around him was particularly warm.

Téa gently called out to him, "Yugi?"

Yugi stirred a little, but he didn't awaken from his slumber.

"Yugi?" She pointed a finger and sent out a little pink spark which tapped him on the shoulder.

Yugi slowly opened his eyes. He blinked in confusion for a few moments as his eyes scanned the watery blue environment, and then remembered that he was sleeping in the ocean for the night. He sat up and gazed at Téa in shock. "Téa? What are you doing down here?" he asked.

"I…I was just a little worried, that's all."

Yugi smiled gently at her. "Téa, there's no need to worry about me." He started ticking off his fingers. "I've cast a spell which lets me breathe underwater, I'm certainly a formidable opponent for any sea creature that comes along, and," he smiled, "I've got somebody who can stay up all night and watch over me in case evil appears."

The Millennium Puzzle glowed with golden light, and the Pharaoh took over for Yugi. "Everything will be all right, Téa," he smiled at her. "You go back to your room and get some rest."

Téa knew that was a cue for her to leave, but she couldn't bring herself to get up and walk away. She looked down at the sandy ocean floor and simply stared at it for a little while, knowing that the Pharaoh was watching her with slight confusion.

After a bit, he stood up and asked, "Téa, what's wrong?"

"It's…" She bit her lip. Finally, she looked up and replied, "I don't think I should go."

"Why is that?"

"Well…it always seems like whenever you and Yugi are the ones targeted by evil beings…something happens which seriously makes me think that I'm going to lose you two…first there was Duelist Kingdom when we almost lost you to the shadow realm…then when you and Spencer switched bodies, if your body had been destroyed…I don't know, maybe you might have taken over for Spencer and we would only have seen you when we were under attack again…and now a goddess might come after you for stealing powers from her which she wanted…" She looked down at the ground. "If she comes after you, then I want to be there so that I can help protect you and make sure what I fear the most won't come true…"

Pharaoh smiled gently at her. "Téa, thank you for your concern." He created a force field around his hand and rubbed it gently against her face. Only a slight bit of the heat came through the field, giving her a warm, tingling sensation. "Tell you what: How about if the two of us come out of this ocean and simply sit and watch for anything that could approach?" He looked up at the wavy image of the moon which shone on top of the water. "It's a beautiful night, so it could be quite enjoyable."

"Okay," Téa nodded. Pharaoh snapped his force field bed away and the two slowly started walking out of the water.

Suddenly, however, the two heard a strange, crackling sound from behind them. The two looked and saw, to their shock, an entire wall of frozen solid ice moving towards them.

Pharaoh and Téa quickly soared up and out of the water. They looked down in horror to see that the entirety of the ocean that they could see had been frozen into a solid ice mass, with the goddess Poliahu floating above it, her arms straight out from her sides and a white glow coming from her outline.

Poliahu looked up and down at the Pharaoh's flaming red and blue outline and sneered, "Well, well, well-looks like the little human boy can use Pele's powers after all." She formed an orb of ice in her hands. "But the question is, will he be able to actually fight with them?"

Pharaoh glared at her with the intensity of his fiery aura increasing. Téa had to move away from him a little so that she wouldn't get burned by the heat.

"Quickly, Téa, go wake up the others," Pharaoh told her. "We must make sure that this goddess never gets what she's come for."

Téa hesitated for a moment, but finally soared down onto the sandy beach and dashed back towards the hotel, ready to get the others up for a fight.


	6. Chapter Five: Turn Up the Heat

Chapter Five: Turn Up the Heat

Poliahu and Pharaoh glared at each other, one glowing icy white, the other a flaming red. "Oh, this is going to be a real challenge," Poliahu sneered. "You're just a special-powered little human-like you'd have any clue how to use abilities other than your own."

Pharaoh smiled at her and replied, "Actually, I've had some experience with learning how to properly use another's abilities."

"Yeah, I'm sure you have," Poliahu replied, rolling her eyes. She held out one hand towards him and snapped, "SMILE AND SAY 'FREEZE'!"

A beam of ice shot out of her hand and headed straight towards him; however, he quickly shut his eyes and focused on the warmth within. The flaming aura around him increased in intensity, and when the beam neared him, it simply melted into water and splashed to the ground.

Poliahu stared at him in shock for a few moments. She quickly regained her composure and said with her voice dripping with sarcasm, "Oh, how impressive-a little bit of heat. But I bet you have no clue how to actually conjure up some lava!"

She held her arms straight out and created dozens of spiky spheres of ice around her. In one swift movement, Poliahu swung her arms out in front of her and sent the spheres flying towards him. While a few of the spheres melted into water before they could even get near him, a couple were coming quickly enough that they were able to strike him directly.

"Aw, no little molten orbs to retaliate?" Poliahu mocked him as he flew back a bit from the pain of the spikes.

The other heroes arrived on the scene at that moment, dashing up to the very edge where the sand met with the ice. Seeing that Pharaoh was wincing slightly in pain and that spiked ice orbs were on the ground right below him, Téa cried out, "Pharaoh, are you all right?"

He opened his eyes and looked down at her. "I'm fine, Téa, don't worry."

Poliahu looked down at the others and sneered, "Oh look, more little humans. I am so doomed-not."

The other heroes glared up at her. Joey, Tristan, Téa, and Bakura glowed with their respective shades of magic while Spencer and Yuri brought out their Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl staffs and Kaiba let out the Blue Eyes essence from its stone. "You're going to regret that, missy," Spencer yelled up to her.

Poliahu simply grinned at him and held her hand down at the heroes. They all quickly soared up into the air as a jagged spike of ice shot out of the ground. Undeterred, Poliahu rose the ice up even higher and split it up so that different jagged spikes of it went spiraling out in pursuit of them.

At first the heroes simply soared as fast as they could away from the ice right behind them; then, when their timing was right, they quickly whipped around and fired out beams of magic or electricity which shot directly through the ice and shattered it into little shards that fell towards the ground.

Poliahu angrily held her hands out, stopping the ice shards right before they could crash, and flung her arms behind her, sending the sharp shards flying back towards the heroes.

Pharaoh, however, quickly soared a bit out in front of the others and conjured up a force field wall before them. He placed his hands on the wall and sent heat flowing all throughout it; thus, the moment the ice shards touched it, they melted into large droplets and splashed down to the ground.

Pele watched all of this going on from down on the beach. She smiled when she saw the Pharaoh sent heat through his force field to melt the ice shards and murmured, "What a resilient young man…"

Poliahu glared angrily at the Pharaoh as he and the others turned to face her. "What an annoying pest…" she muttered. "I suppose it's time I stopped being so nice with him and let him really feel a chill. But first…"

She snapped her fingers and platforms of ice appeared below everyone except the Pharaoh's feet. With a wave of her hand, sheets of ice suddenly rose up from the platforms and completely encased the others heroes up to their necks within iceberg-like enclosures. The heaviness of the ice sent them zooming down to the ground.

Pharaoh was about to soar after them when Poliahu quickly conjured up a large, solid orb of ice and smacked it up against his head, knocking him out cold before he could melt it. She created a platform of ice which he fell down upon on his back. With him unconscious, the heat stopped coming from him in totality, preventing the platform from melting away.

Grinning, she floated up to him and pried his mouth open. She pointed one finger inside of it and started shooting ice down his throat.

As the others struggled to break out of their ice prisons, Téa looked up and saw Poliahu floating over Pharaoh with one of her fingers in his mouth. _What's she doing to him?! _Téa thought in horror.

Poliahu continued sending the ice down until a sheet of it finally came back up through his throat and out of his mouth. She floated away from him a little and continued using her finger to encase his body within ice.

The other heroes quickly focused on the magic within them and sent it shooting out of their hands, shattering the ice around them into pieces. Without hesitation, Téa soared up to Pharaoh and Poliahu with the others right behind her.

Poliahu was still shooting the ice out at him, which now spread all the way down to his toes and up to the very tip of his hair. Téa stared at this in horror and screamed out, "GET AWAY FROM HIM!"

Poliahu stopped firing the ice and crooked her finger back. She shrugged and replied, "Whatever, human girl-but it won't matter too much; your friend is gone." Grinning nastily, she pushed the platform of ice with the Pharaoh on it over to them. "He's been frozen from the inside out."

Téa stared down in horror at her frozen friend. "NO!" she cried out. She pressed one hand up against the ice by the side of his head and screamed, "Pharaoh, wake up! Get out of there! You'll freeze to death!"

The Pharaoh didn't even stir from within the ice.

"Yugi!" Téa tried calling out to the other person within, but he still didn't move.

Screaming, Téa curled one hand into a fist, let it glow with pink magic, and slammed it directly into Pharaoh's enclosure, shattering the ice into pieces which smashed down onto the frozen ocean.

Before he could fall, she quickly caught him in her arms. His body felt extremely cold from the ice within it. "Pharaoh…Yugi…no…" Téa murmured, her eyes welling up with tears.

The others, too, gazed down at Yugi and Pharaoh with saddened looks on their faces. Joey and Tristan held each other up and tried desperately not to cry, Bakura attempted to sense out their spirits if they were leaving, Kaiba tried to remain neutral, and Spencer started murmuring a prayer from his world: "May the gods be merciful with their souls, may they find freedom and peace in a spiritual realm…"

Yuri floated up to Téa and gently placed one hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry, child," he murmured to her.

Téa sobbed out quietly, "This can't be the end…there must be something that can be done…"

She shut her eyes in despair. One single tear dripped out of one of them, glowing faintly with a tiny pink spark, and landed on Yugi and Pharaoh's chest.

_Téa…_

Téa snapped her eyes open as she started to feel the body she held grow warmer and warmer. Slowly, she let go of him and he floated there in the air, his outline starting to glow with red light. At first it was faint, but it gradually increased in intensity to the point where even from a few feet away one could feel extreme heat in the air.

"What's happenin'?" Joey asked, staring in shock at the red-glowing Pharaoh.

Suddenly, Pharaoh's entire body transformed into glowing, molten hot lava that emitted large flames all around his outline. Streams of steam shot out of him as the ice within him melted almost instantly. He sat up and opened his eyes, now glowing with bright yellow light.

"WHA-THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!" Poliahu screamed out, staring down at the intensely flaming Pharaoh with horror in her eyes.

Pharaoh looked up at her and narrowed his glowing eyes.

"Uh-oh," she whispered in fear.

Lightning fast, he flew up to her and blasted out a ray of the molten hot lava which only narrowly missed her arm, creating a searing rip through her white jacket's sleeve. Poliahu stared at the smoking rip in horror for a moment, and then quickly tried to retaliate by firing a beam of ice out at him; however, the heat coming from him was so intense that it melted before it was even a foot away from him.

Smiling, Pharaoh shot out streams of lava which wrapped themselves around her jacket sleeves and singed them right off. He then moved the streams so that they sliced right through the jacket's shoulders, sending it falling down towards the frozen ocean.

Poliahu screamed "NO!" and dove for the jacket, but streams of green, orange, pink, grey, white, gold, and light blue magic came up from behind her and wrapped themselves around her legs, leaving her dangling in the air and waving desperately for her jacket.

Moving in unison, the other heroes flung her back towards the island; then, before she could fall to the ground, Pharaoh shot out a large beam of lava at her which blasted her directly in the chest and sent her flying backwards all the way into the night sky and out of sight.


	7. Chapter Six: Pele's Tears

Chapter Six: Pele's Tears

Once Poliahu was gone, the other heroes floated down to the sandy beach while Pharaoh touched down on top of the ocean, sending steam up from the ice as his blazing hot self touched it. He indicated the jacket and called out, "Pele, I believe something which belongs to your family is here."

Grinning with delight, Pele carefully made her way across the ice up to the jacket. She reached into its pocket and pulled out her family's Makua Stone. "Stay still," she told Pharaoh, holding the stone out towards him.

The Makua Stone glowed brightly with white light that shot out of it and surrounded the entirety of the Pharaoh's outline. Slowly, his body transformed back into flesh and blood which faded back to its normal peach color, and the white light turned the familiar shade of flaming red.

The fiery red light soared up into the air and formed itself into a red orb which swooped down to Pele and blasted right into her chest. She closed her eyes and sighed with delight as the warmth of her power flowed through her entire being. "Ahh, that feels so much better…" she murmured.

Opening her eyes, Pele bowed down to the Pharaoh. "Thank you so much for keeping my powers away from that witch and restoring them to me." She held out her hand towards the Makua Stone. Glowing with a white light, it floated up from his hand and directly into hers. "This should be returned to my family's home immediately-ooh, I can't wait to see the look on my sister's face…" she giggled. "I'll be especially pleased to let her know the plan was foiled by super-powered humans!"

Pele looked around at the teens. "All of you have such wonderful gifts," she murmured. "I do hope you'll continue to put them to good use."

"Considerin' how many bad guys just come ta us, it's not like we'll have much of a choice…" Joey muttered.

Pele floated up into the air and called out "Aloha!" to the others before she transformed into an orb of lava and soared away right above the ocean, sending her incredible warmth out everywhere and melting the frozen solid ice back into water, leaving the ocean calm and blue as though nothing had happened at all.

* * *

After this adventure, the rest of the heroes' vacation turned out to be pretty uneventful. Granted, Joey won the little 'contest' between him and Tristan over who could dunk the other underneath the water the most, Spencer did experience one wipeout when, supposedly, the sun got into his eyes, and Yuri ended up finding a rare wentletrap shell, but other than that, everything remained pretty peaceful and normal.

All too soon, however, came the morning of their departure.

Sadly, the teens packed up their bags, now filled up with various seashells, photos, and other little trinkets from Hawaii, checked out of their hotel rooms, and piled into the same limo from before which drove them all the way back to the airport. On the way, Joey and Tristan put the sunroof down and stuck their heads out to get one last whiff of the sweet-smelling Hawaiian air while the others gazed a bit morosely out at the paradise they were leaving.

Finally, the limo arrived at the airport. The teens gathered up their bags and were about to enter the place when a voice behind them called out, "Aloha!"

They turned around to see Pele running up behind them, waving one hand and holding onto a red woven purse decorated with seashells with the other. "Pele!" Yugi called out. "How is everything?"

"Wonderful," she smiled. "The Makua Stone is back where it belongs, my sister's being punished for even thinking about risking the entirety of humanity's life by giving some other goddess the stone to take my powers away, and Poliahu's gone back to some snowy mountain. Life is good right now." She reached down into her purse. "Anyway, I wanted to give you a token of my appreciation for saving my powers and getting the stone back, so…"

Pele pulled her hand, now clutching something, out of her purse. She opened it up to reveal seven beautiful, shiny black stones which were shaped perfectly like teardrops. "These are solid pieces of lava," she smiled. "On this island, they're called 'Pele's Tears'."

Spencer stared at her. "You're seriously letting us just take these?" he said.

She nodded. "Yep."

Joey picked up one of the stones and gazed at it. "What's so special about just takin' a little rock from Hawaii?" he asked.

Spencer rolled his eyes. "Because normally whenever someone does that Pele places a curse on them since the rocks are on what Hawaiians believe to be sacred ground."

Joey stared at the rock, then dropped it back into Pele's hand as though it had bitten him. She giggled and said, "Don't worry, these rocks are completely curse-free. That's why they're my gift to all of you."

After a bit of hesitation and some more reassurance from Pele that the rocks weren't cursed, the seven guys each reached out and took one of the smooth, shining tears from her palm.

When it was empty, Téa stared down at it as though she was expecting one to appear.

"Oops! I'm sorry, yours must still be in my purse," Pele cried out. She opened it up again and started frisking around inside of it, muttering, "Where is it, where is it…"

As she searched, Téa turned to her friends and said, "Why don't you guys go on ahead to our plane. I'll catch up with you soon."

"Dat's all right wit me," Joey said, turning and walking towards the airport door. "I need some of dat plane food; I'm starvin' here."

"Yeah, me too," Tristan agreed, following him as he held his free hand hand against his growling stomach.

"How can you two be hungry?!" Spencer cried out. "We just ate breakfast an hour ago!"

"Man, has it been dat long?"

Kaiba rolled his eyes and muttered, "I swear, those two have bottomless pits for stomachs…"

Once all of the guys had gone into the airport, Pele finally gave a cry of delight. "Ah-ha! Here it is!"

She pulled her clenched hand out of her purse and opened it up.

Téa gasped when she saw the Pele's Tear that lay on her palm. Unlike the others, this one was perfectly shaped into a shiny black heart.

Pele smiled as she took one of Téa's hands and placed the tear into her palm. "This I made especially for you, to remind you of the bond that's between you and your two friends in one. Don't ever let it wither and die." She winked. "Because trust me, girl, he is quite a catch."

With that, she turned and left Téa to stare down at her black heart. Smiling, she clutched the heart firmly in her palm and closed her eyes. She could almost imagine the same warm, tingling sensation that flowed through her when the Pharaoh had touched her cheek coming out of the stone and radiating throughout her entire body…

"Téa!"

She snapped out of her dreaming and turned to find Yugi standing in the airport doorway. "Everything okay?" he asked her with concern in his eyes.

Téa smiled and slipped the heart into one of the pockets on her carry-on bag. "Yes, everything's just fine," she replied. "C'mon, let's go-we have a plane to catch."

With that, the two walked into the airport and let the door shut behind them.


End file.
